PRESIDENT Joe Biden released a huge $6 trillion budget request on Friday that would take the US to its highest levels of federal spending since World War II.
His first budget proposal since taking office, Biden's spending plan would ramp up investment in infrastructure and education, while also setting aside $34 billion to combat climate change.
Biden's plan for the fiscal year 2022 calls for $6.01 trillion in spending and $4.17 trillion in revenues, a 36.6 percent increase from 2019 outlays.
It projects a $1.84 trillion deficit, a sharp decrease from the past two years because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but up from 2019's $984 billion.
Biden is seeking to use the budget to fund his $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan, his $1.8 trillion families plan, and also cover $1.5 trillion in discretionary spending to fund federal agencies.
He hopes those plans will boost the nation's middle class and lift US industry to compete in a global economy Biden's administration believes will be increasingly reliant on green energy and climate change prevention.
The president plans to fund the plans by hiking taxes on corporations and the country's biggest earners.
Officials within the Biden administration have repeatedly assured the plans would be fully offset by tax increases over the next 15 years, which Biden's budget request reiterates.
Until that time, the US would continue to operate on significant deficits as the government borrows money to fund the president's plans.
As outlined in the plan, the budget deficit would hit $1.8 trillion in 2022, even with the economy rebounding from the pandemic-causing recession.
That number would decrease slightly in the following years to around $1.3 trillion, before increasing back up to just shy of $1.6 trillion in the fiscal year of 2031.
Debt held by the public would also exceed the annual value of economic output. By 2031, the debt is projected to rise to 117 percent the size of the economy.
By 2024, debt will rise to its highest level in US history, eclipsing a World War II-era record, as previously reported by the New York Times.
The proposed spending will target areas that the president will argue are vital to keeping America competitive in the global economy.
That will include significant investment in America's roads, water pipes, broadband, electric vehicle charging stations, bridges, and clean energy research.
It will also include possible spending jumps in Medicaid, affordable childcare and other social programs, while laying out proposed funds for foreign aid, immigration policing and national defense.
Additionally, a key component of the plan is Biden's aim of aggressively fighting climate change and slashing US carbon emissions in half by 2030.
His proposal calls for more than $36 billion to tackle global warming – an increase of more than $14 billion in comparison to last year's budget.
Those funds would be used to sanction major new investments into clean energy, climate and sustainability research and improved water infrastructure.
Climate change is "an opportunity to create new industries and good-paying jobs with a free and fair choice to join a union, revitalize America's energy communities and the economy, and position America as the world's clean energy superpower," the proposal reads.
While the president can propose an annual budget for the US government, it's ultimately up to Congress to approve spending bills.
And while Democrats hold the majority in the House of Representatives, they only narrowly control the 50-50 divided Senate, with Vice President Kamala Harris holding the tie-breaking vote.
If the plan is approved, the government would spend what amounts to nearly a quarter of the nation’s total economic output every year over the course of the next decade, the Times reports.
The proposal is certain to draw Republican opposition, despite the deficit rising during each year of Donald Trump's presidency and spiking during the pandemic.
Leading the charge of outrage on Friday, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy released a statement calling Biden's budget the "most reckless and irresponsible budget of my lifetime."
"Today, President Biden submitted the details of a budget that promises higher taxes, higher prices, crushing debt, and less security. It is the most reckless and irresponsible budget proposal in my lifetime," he wrote.
"Despite months of warnings from Republicans and even liberal economists, the White House jammed through a partisan $1.8 trillion spending package in March that turned our ongoing economic comeback into an economic crisis, resulting in the worst jobs report in decades and the fastest jump in inflation in 13 years."
McCarthy said that now, Biden is seeking to push the US economy "to breaking point" by borrowing trillions "more so he can spend more money than America spent at the height of World War II. This means more taxes, more inflation, and more unsustainable debt."
"But the dire fiscal and economic consequences this budget would place on our country is made worse by the radical priorities it would fund," he continued.
McCarthy accused Biden's plan of "calling for tax-payer abortion" and restoring $123.5 million in tax pay funding for the World Health Organization (WHO), which "has been complicit in covering up China’s COVID lies.
“This budget is wrong for America," he blasted. "Every member of Congress should reject it."
Republicans have been critical of Biden's hefty spending plans since he assumed office.
His America Rescue Plan, signed into law in March, cost the country $1.9 trillion.
His infrastructure plan was initially slated to cost $2.3 trillion, though he's now seeking to trim the price tag down to $1.7 trillion in an effort to secure GOP support in the Senate.
"It just seems like the trillions keep on coming," Republican U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito said of Biden's budget suggestion.
Still, Biden campaigned on charting a new course for the country after four divisive years under his Republican predecessor and has vowed to press ahead with his sweeping proposals.
With interest rates low and the nation still dusting itself down from the pandemic recession, Biden believes now is the time to make large up-front investments that pay for themselves over longer periods of time.
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